fellow-passengers; the Venezuelans were chattering like a band of apes;
naked babies lived and moved and had their unclean little beings where
they listed; near us a British engineer was arguing in Spanish with a
German coffee planter, and behind him an Austrian Jew who had been
buying pearls in Margherita was showing his wares to the wife of a Dutch
officer returning to Curaçao from a visit to relatives in Surinam, and
the two were chattering away in voluble French. Our captain, a fine
specimen of a Hollander, was playing chess with an Italian, and the
latter was winning, having no ship on the coast and his brain unfilled
with plans regarding the securing of a cargo for Havre or Amsterdam.
Through the crowd came a stolid Dutch quartermaster, picking his way
along the deck to read the taffrail-log, which he did, and returned
oblivious to all but the number in his head, as I could see from the
moving of his lips as he muttered it over to himself.
Leyden led the way aft to the grating beside the hand steering-gear—the
place where we usually held our sessions of swapping experiences. I drew
out a fresh cigar and the German lit his big porcelain pipe, an
apparatus especially adapted to the needs of the _raconteur_, as one
could take a puff or two and then bank the fire until the next
stopping-place.
“It was several years ago,” he began. “I had been sent up the Orinoco by
an American university, a new one in the Middle West, to which some
sausage-maker had given a fortune to build and stock a museum of natural
history. The president of the university sent for me; I can never
sufficiently admire the capability of this young man for his position.
He took me into the museum and showed me at least a kilometer of empty
shelves.
“‘This place must be chock-a-block by commencement time,’ said he. ‘I
have four men at work in North America, two in South America, four in
Europe——’ and so on, all over the face of the earth. ‘I wish you to take
charge of South America, north of the Amazon. There is a man in the
Amazon Valley chasing up the fish and reptiles, and one in Peru, out for
mammals. You are to get after the birds and insects; of course, if you
should happen to run across anything rare that’s not in your line just
gather it in, anyway.’ He glanced at some typewritten memoranda. ‘That
ought to give us an A1 stock of South American goods, and before we get
through if we don’t have Putney University bluffed off the boards _I’ll_
go to h——’”
Leyden paused, and I heard his china stove splutter as he laughed
softly.
“It was a good outfit, that of mine—the best I have ever had. There were
four large boats, with a crew of five men in each. As quantity was
required as well as quality, I stocked up as if for a trading
expedition. You know, Doctor, natives are themselves born collectors;
moreover, an observant savage knows a rare thing when he sees it. I have
had a large experience with aborigines and know the capriciousness of
their tastes. The objects which one would expect to attract them they
often positively refuse to look at, while for something else they are
ready to do murder. If a man is fortunate enough to strike a popular
fancy he can buy a whole tribe. And that is what I proposed to do.
“There was a friend of mine in New York, a German, who had traded on the
Orinoco, and from him I formed some ideas in regard to trade-stuffs,
for, you see, it was my plan to subsidize some tribe and have them doing
my collecting while I stopped in camp to pack and preserve specimens.
Before leaving New York I went to one of the big wholesale ‘notion’
stores on Broadway and explained my needs to the superintendent. The
first thing which he showed me—as a joke, I believe—was a consignment of
fawn-colored opera hats which had been made for some minstrel company
which went into the hands of the receiver before the goods were
delivered. They were light and folded compactly, and you know how
savages delight in elaborate head-gear. I bought three dozen for twenty
dollars. Then I bought two dozen harmonicas and two dozen bright
jew’s-harps. Of course, I got the usual stock goods—fishhooks, calico
prints, aniline dyes—and finally the proprietor, who had a keen sense of
humor, presented me with a case of four dozen old-fashioned iron
spectacle frames which contained no glasses. As I wear spectacles
myself, I decided that possibly I might set a fashion up in Orinoco, and
accordingly took them along.”
Leyden paused to turn the forced draught on his tobacco crucible, and in
the silence I caught odd snatches of conversation in at least five
different tongues: “_Tres pien marche—tres pien marche_,” came the
guttural voice of the pearl-buyer. “_Cuanto por la picinia_,” from the
Venezuelans, followed by a snigger of that peculiar note that goes with
an improper anecdote; a sort of falsetto giggle—everyone knows the kind.
Then the captain got checkmated, and swore a good, hearty Dutch oath
that sounded strangely clean and honest and wholesome as compared to the
staccato fragments on all sides.
“I had my outfit towed up as far as Ciudad Bolivar,” Leyden continued.
“There I found a German named Meyers, who had a big trading station. He
told me in confidence that he was planning to call in his loans, as far
as he was able, and leave the country, as the rapacity of the new
government made it impossible to carry on a profitable trade. He was a
man of about fifty, unmarried, and had lived at least half of his life
on the river.
“It happened that my lieutenant, a young German-American named Lefferts,
had contracted the fever on the way up the river. He was the son of an
old friend of mine in New York, and I had promised to take care of him.
You have had some experience in tropical malaria, Doctor. Or perhaps it
is not malaria; at any rate, one dies in rather an indecent hurry, and
quinine is about as efficient as so much flour. I sent the lad back on
the steamer and asked Meyers if he knew of any one with whom to replace
him—a white man, of course, as it is always well to have at least two
white men when there are things to steal.
“When I asked the question it seemed to me that Meyers’ pale yellow face
took on a more lifelike color.
“‘There is a young man in my employ whom you might persuade to go,’ said
he. ‘At present he is keeping the store. I will send for him—but I beg
of you not to say a word concerning what I have mentioned in regard to
my returning to Germany.’
“‘Certainly not,’ said I. Meyers gave an order to a servant, and a few
minutes later I saw a broad-shouldered young fellow walking toward the
house. Even before he came within hail his striking resemblance to
Meyers told me what he was.
“Few men could have told that he was not a German born, and still fewer
that African blood flowed through his veins, but my calling is one which
demands close powers of observation. His hair was of a light brown,
straight, but utterly without lustre; his blue eyes had a muddy tinge,
and his skin, although fair, had that peculiar purple tint of raw meat
which one sees in blonds with African corpuscles.
“Meyers explained my needs, and the young man, whose name was Frederick,
listened attentively, as I did also, for as the older man talked I
became conscious of an odd accent of fear in his voice. Each time that
his natural son turned his eyes in his direction Meyers would seem to
recoil and his voice would grow faint and irresolute. It did not take me
long to see that the trader was in mortal terror of his offspring.
“Frederick listened, as it seemed to me, a bit sulkily, and once or
twice gave Meyers a sidelong glance of suspicion, as if he was trying to
discover some ulterior motive—which indeed was not lacking, as I very
well knew that Meyers would not be there when I returned, and I more
than half suspected that Meyers would have left before had it not been
for Frederick.
“‘What will you pay?’ he asked, suddenly, turning to me. I told him.
“‘It is not much,’ he observed, in a surly voice.
“‘I am not urging you to come,’ I replied, quietly. ‘There is the
proposition; take it or leave it.’
“‘I will let you know in the morning,’ said he, and left us with no
salutation.
“When he had gone Meyers turned to me with a weak and somewhat
frightened smile.
“‘I think that he will go,’ said he. ‘He is fond of money. Of course’—he
smiled in a way that made me want to kick him—‘you understand—the—eh—my
position——’
“‘No’—I answered a bit brutally, I fear—‘I don’t. If you care enough
about him to educate him as you appear to have done, why do you want to
desert him?’
“He shrank as if I had struck him, and for a moment seemed on the verge
of collapse, then recovered and clapped his hands feebly. A yellow girl,
in an unclean pinafore which rather emphasized the nakedness beneath,
flopped out of the house, holding her frock partly together with one
hand, and asked what he wanted.
“‘Schiedam and bitters—and bring a water-monkey,’ he answered. Rather to
my surprise, the wench did as she was bid, favoring me with a rather
bold stare.
“It was intensely hot—just before the afternoon shower. We were sitting
on the raised veranda of Meyers’ house, and down below us the river
oozed along, viscid and brown and sticky-looking, like molasses flowing
out of a stove-in vat. The clouds were banking up black and forbidding
on the other side of the stream, and occasionally a rumble of thunder
reached us.
“‘You do not know—do not understand,’ said Meyers, finally. He raised
one skinny, mottled hand to his red, untidy beard, which was getting
gray around his muzzle, like an old collie, which, in fact, he somewhat
resembled. ‘Of course, you see the relationship.’ His fingers massaged
his lips, a frequent gesture with people of vacillating character. ‘I
was fond of him as a boy and flattered myself that his negro blood was
in no way evident, though his mother was a mulatto—but it was only in
process of incubation; it has since shown itself—not physically, but in
more sinister manifestations: in the workings of his mind.’ He reached
for his gin-and-bitters, slopping half of it down the front of his
tunic. ‘My conscience demands that I should warn you,’ he went on, after
gulping down his gin and wiping his gray muzzle on his sleeve. ‘He is
intelligent, and when not crossed his disposition is cheerful and
kind—when not crossed, you observe, because it is when his resentment is
aroused that the black blood comes all to the surface. At such times he
is a fiend incarnate—but there is no reason why in your case any such
condition should arise.’ He glanced about him nervously, then hunched
his chair closer to mine. ‘I will tell you something that you would
never guess,’ said he, pushing his face toward mine until his gin-soaked
bristles almost touched my cheek. ‘At times’—his voice dropped to a
whisper—‘at times I am actually in fear of him!’
“‘Do you think that he will accept my offer?’ I asked, leaning backward,
for the man was getting momentarily more repugnant to me.
“_B’r’r’gh!_” Leyden arose suddenly and, walking to the taffrail, spat
into the water. “I can see the fellow yet, Doctor,” he said, turning to
me apologetically. “He—and his unhealthy, exotic surroundings, that were
partly luxurious, partly rotten, like one of those beautiful carnivorous
orchids with their wonderful tints and charnel-house odor—mauve and
carmine outside and inside full of decaying insects. Meyers was rich,
and he had a fine house and a beautiful garden, and European delicacies,
and books, and _objets de vertu_, but his setting was poisonous!
Mangroves and fever and humid heat—and whenever you went in and out of
his place you would catch a glimpse of slatternly, half-naked native
women poking and prying and getting out of the way. Then he would
receive you in a limp, unbuttoned sort of a way—you know the type.
“He was of exceptionally good family and a man of highest education, but
I fancied that he had pretty well degenerated——”
Eight bells were struck forward, and Leyden paused to strike a match and
hold it to the dial of the log. The Dutch captain came aft at the same
moment and held the lighted end of his cigar against the dial. He paused
to chat with us for a moment, then went forward to see if the youthful
mate on the bridge was still awake, for the strain of work is terrific
on the coast, and I doubt if the mates had averaged four hours’ sleep in
the twenty-four for a week.
“Frederick finally decided to accept my offer,” Leyden went on, “and the
next day we left Bolivar and proceeded up the river. I explained my
project to Frederick, who told me that he knew of a tribe located near
the head of one of the tributaries of the Orinoco, whom he had once
visited on a trading expedition, and, as I judged that the district
should be rich in the material of which I was in search, I decided to
visit it.
“It was tedious working up that everlasting stream; hot, too, for there
was seldom a breeze, and sometimes it seemed to me that the dome of
humidity rising from that sluggish river acted as a lens, or burning
glass, to focus upon us the rays of that withering sun. My crews turned
out well; a few had the fever, but what surprised me was that Frederick
seemed to suffer from the heat more than any of us. Yet he was a useful
man—a good driver, although it seemed to me at times that he was
unnecessarily abusive.
“Once we entered the tributary, the ——, it was much better, for there we
could keep in the shade of the great forest which rose right from the
banks. I had already secured quite a number of specimens, and was
altogether much satisfied by the way in which things were going.
“One peculiarity of Frederick which I had several times noticed was his
personal vanity, a trait which at times made him ridiculous. I had
observed the covetousness with which he regarded some of my personal
effects, and had given him several trifles, among them a pair of bright
yellow leather puttee-leggins, at which his delight was like that of a
child. That was the African. The contraptions were too hot for me, too
hot for anybody, but Frederick wore them constantly.
“I had not said much about my trading junk, thinking that he might
regard me as a business rival, but one evening when we were encamped on
the edge of the river I had the case of hats opened, as I had noticed
the ants coming out of the crevices and wanted to see if the goods were
damaged. I drew one of them out, punched it open, and was examining it,
when I happened to glance at Frederick, who was standing near. His eyes
were fairly bulging and his loose mouth agape.
“‘Why have you those hats, Doctor?’ he gasped, in astonishment.
“‘Trading stuff,’ I answered. ‘Do you think that the natives will like
them?’
“‘The natives! But they are far too good! They are beautiful hats, such
as gentlemen wear in the United States, are they not?’
“I glanced at him curiously, and saw that he was looking at that hat as
a starving man might look at a loaf of bread. Really, in spite of Meyers
having given him what would be equal to a good high-school education,
the man was simple as a savage, and he had never been away from the
Orinoco.
“‘You appear to admire them,’ I answered, carelessly; ‘perhaps you might
like one yourself. They are light, and should be cool.’
“His eyes glistened; he could hardly thank me, he was so pleased. I
overhauled the lot until I found one that fitted him, and after that he
wore it constantly, to the great admiration of the native crews.
“A few days later we found the tribe, with whom I immediately opened
negotiations. They were remarkably quick in learning what was required
of them, and they were pleased with my goods. Especially they admired
Frederick, who went about clad in bright yellow puttees, moleskin
trousers, a white drill tunic with a military collar, and a fawn-colored
opera hat. It seemed to me that the elegance of his attire had some good
effect, for he certainly had great authority with those red Indians—more
than I.
“Things went on swimmingly for a while; the savages brought me in
specimens of every description; my packing cases were becoming filled,
and it looked as if, where my part of it was concerned, Billings
University might yet have Putney University ‘bluffed off the boards.’
The interest of the natives had begun to flag slightly, but I had
refreshed it by serving out the harmonicas and jew’s-harps—a step which
I soon regretted, as my camp became a nightmare of sound. A fortnight
later, business becoming slack again, I served out the opera hats, and
whipped up their ardor still further by exhibiting the spectacle
frames.”
Leyden paused and chuckled into his pipe until the sparks spouted from
the big china bowl like a roman candle.
“Imagine, Doctor, such a spectacle! I had brought a lot of mosquito
netting—pink, it was—and with that I had shown the savages how to make
insect nets. Such a sight! Forty or fifty Indians and bush-niggers, some
naked except for a fawn-colored opera hat and a pair of iron spectacles
without the lenses; others swathed in flaming calico prints, sitting
around my camp blowing into a harmonica or a jew’s-harp, or sneaking
through the jungle with shrimp-pink butterfly net! The very crocodiles
used to crawl out upon the banks and laugh! And the natives all so proud
and pleased!
“Then one day a few of them came in and said that they had trapped a
_maipuri_—a kind of water-tapir—over on the other bank. I took a few men
and went over to superintend the skinning of the beast, and while so
engaged two of the Indians came rushing up to say that a small steamer
was coming up the river.
“It turned out to be a little gunboat. Shortly after we left Bolivar
there had been one of the semi-annual revolutions, and the new governor
of the district, knowing that I had gone up the river, had come up to
see what could be made out of me. The matter could have been arranged
peaceably enough had it not been for Frederick. On sighting the steamer
the fool had promptly armed the boat crews, and when the people from the
gunboat landed near the camp they were confronted by an array of twenty
half-caste Caribs, armed with bored-out Springfields, and about
two-score of Indians, gorgeously equipped with opera hats and
spectacles, many of them blowing furiously into harmonicas and all armed
with bows and spears.
“Those Indians, as you know, are the most harmless people in the world,
but the Caribs will fight, and from all I could learn, for I was across
the river at the time, that fool of a Frederick went roaring about,
making frenzied orations and challenging the Venezuelans to try to land.
“They did land, and at the first volley Frederick rolled on his back,
absolutely unhurt, and howled for mercy. The Caribs retreated firing,
and managed to kill one of the people from the gunboat and wound three
others. I started back the moment I heard the firing, but by that time
my allies had been routed, and I was promptly arrested and put down
below in double irons.
“They confiscated all of my specimens, stowing them away on the gunboat,
took the boats in tow and down the river we went, leaving the Indians
and boatmen in the bush. All of my protests were vain; I had been
trading without a license from the government—which did not exist when I
went up—in addition to which my people had fired upon government troops,
killing a man and wounding others. No appeal to my consul would be
permitted; I was no better than a pirate, etc.
“Frederick was chained up near me on the trip down, and he alternated
between raving curses at our captors and whimpering like a pup when they
cuffed him for it. You see, Doctor, the alien strains were always at
work in that man. One minute he was white, the next black. Your French
or Spanish or Italian half-caste would have had the cunning that is one
of the compensations of the mongrel; but Frederick was in two layers,
and sometimes one would be on top and sometimes the other, but they
never mixed. It was even so with his personal appearance, for I noticed
that when he was in charge of our men he looked the typical German; his
features were aquiline, composed, dignified and showed character. On the
other hand, when he was hurt or frightened the actual color of his skin
was all that proclaimed him white. His eyes would bulge until the whites
were visible all the way around, his forehead crept down, his nose would
actually flatten and his lips rolled back in the typical African manner,
showing their red linings and the big ivory teeth.
“Before we had reached the mouth of the river he was moping in the usual
negro way, and I think that he would have died, as negroes will if their
despondency lasts too long, had we been a week longer _en voyage_.”
Leyden ceased speaking and jerked his head irritably toward the fat
Italian who had been playing chess with the captain. He had fallen
asleep in his chair, and, being a large man, his head had rolled back
over the cross-bar. A shaft of light from the “_rook kamer_” fell upon
the expanse of pale, flabby throat, stretched tense by the weight of the
pendant head, and as I glanced that way it vibrated with strangling,
unwholesome noises.
“_Humbert!_” called Leyden, in a soft, feminine voice, then quickly
turned his back. The sodden mass convoluted; the noises culminated in a
strangling snort; one almost heard the vertebræ creak as the strain came
upon them; then he sat up and stared about in bewilderment.
“Nothing like the sound of one’s name to wake one, especially in a
strange place,” chuckled Leyden, softly. “I saw on the passenger list
that his name was Humbert.” He walked to the taffrail and leaned upon it
for a moment, watching the glowing disks of phosphorescence whirled to
the surface by the screw. They glowed and faded and then glowed again,
to merge finally into a broad band of luminous silver that formed the
wake.
“They left my specimen cases at Bolivar,” he resumed, talking to the
rudder, apparently, “and took us around to Cumana, where they lodged us
in the nasty little jail which I will show you to-morrow, if we are
permitted to land. After a month of it—fever and starvation and vermin”
(he scratched his shoulder with a squirm)—“I itch yet when I think of
it—after a month of all this I became _ennuyé_ and decided to leave.”
His voice grew ominously hard. “So one evening I took Frederick and we
came away. Frederick was at pretty low ebb by that time, and it took
about three days’ skillful jockeying to coax his German blood to the
top; but eventually I got it there in sufficient volume to make me think
that it would remain for an hour or two—and it did!—long enough to
enable him to kill one of the devilish nigger guards with his naked
hands. I crushed the skull of another with a jagged piece of rock, and
then we wandered down the beach, found a rotten old canoe and paddled
out to sea.
“The canoe was half waterlogged, and I knew that it would not carry us
very far, so I decided to try and get to Margherita and take our chances
on the rest. When the day broke I could just distinguish the outlines of
the island, with the usual big cloud hanging over it. We paddled all day
long, without seeming to get any nearer; then Frederick grew sulky all
at once and threw down his paddle with the remark that he was going to
die.
“‘You certainly will,’ said I, ‘unless you keep at work.’ I had filled a
water-jug that I found in the canoe before we started, but we had
nothing to eat since afternoon of the day before, and what we got then
was not of a tissue-building character.
“‘I am going to die,’ Frederick repeated—and then, confound him, he lay
down in the bottom of the canoe and _did_ die!”
I grunted—for that seemed to me to be an adequate epitaph for such a
person as I fancied Frederick to have been.
“I did not discover it at once,” Leyden went on, “but when I did I was
rather relieved, as it is harder to share one’s nerve with another man
than one’s food. I slid him over the side of the canoe and kept on with
my paddling. Really, Doctor, that day is an absolute blank. About sunset
I struck some of the outlying boats of the pearl divers and the next
thing that I remember is waking up and finding myself lying in a nasty
little hut covered with flies. I think that it was the smell of the
shell-heaps on the beach that brought me to life again. But it was odd
about that man Frederick, was it not?—and rather illustrates my theory,
don’t you think?”
“Never mind your theory,” said I. “Tell me the rest of the story.”